KADAPA: An 80-year-old woman who was rescued from the Good Heart Old Age Home by district judge G Srinivas on Sunday died at RIMS Hospital during treatment on Monday. The woman, who was abandoned by her family, was admitted to the old age home by some good samaritans. But her condition was no better at the home where food wasn’t served on time. An inmate said those who asked for food were shouted at and even thrashed.
Doctors said she died of starvation and would not have met her end had she been served two square meals a day. She was anaemic and her legs lost strength due to malnutrition.The woman died alone as her identity could be ascertained as neither the hospital nor the old age home records of hers.
When Kadapa Bar Association president Mastan Valli and general secretary Sudhakar Babji heard of the tragedy, they visited the hospital to pay their tributes.
Meanwhile, district collector T Baburao Naidu said the other elderly persons rescued from Good Heart Old Age Home were undergoing treatment at RIMS, Kadapa, and would soon be moved to different old age homes in the district. Several NGOs including Chaitanya Educational and Rural Development Society, Sri Krishnadevaraya Yuvajana Sangh, Khadi Silk Gramudyog Samiti and Padmavati Mahila Mandali have expressed willingness to take ten each of the 51 elders and provide shelter to them. The collector has assured all help from the district administration. Of the 51, 11 are mentally ill. ICDS project director N Raghavarao has been asked to sort out their relocation.